stickney



UNITED STATES PATENT OEErcE.

JOHN H. STIGKNEY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 297,469, datedApril 22, 1884.

(No model.)

To all whom it may'concern.:

Be it known that I, JOHN. H. STroKNEY, a citizen Aof the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shoes; and I do hereby declare that the same are fully described in the followingspeciication and illustrated in -the accompanying drawings.

This simple invention has a twofold object first, to facilitate drawing on an overshoe over an ordinary boot or shoe, and, second, to hold the rear lower edge of the pantaloons7 leg up out of the mud. In other words, it serves as a kind of permanent shoe-horn to guide the boot-heel into the overshoe, and forms a hook or yielding-support for the pants.

My invention is embodied in a shoe having at its rear upper edge an upwardly-extending flexible lip, curved in horizontal section to coliform to the curvature of that part of the shoe, and secured,prelerably,between the heelpiece and the lining of the shoe, but extending above them both far enough to be conveniently grasped without contact of the bootheel With the hand.

rIhe drawings show an overshoe provided with my improvement, Figure 1 being a perspective view, Fig. 2 representing its action while being drawn on, and Fig. 3 illustrating the method of supporting the pantaloons.

A is the shoe, ordinarily a vulcanized rubber overshoe; and B, the iiexible lip, in which my invention resides. This attachment is, by

preference, of some stout fabric, and, in order to be unobtrusive and to be readily united to the parts adjacent to it, is coated with rubber compound and cured or vulcanized with the shoe. Vhen the lip B is inserted at its lower edge between, the lining and heel-piece, the portion so inserted is coated on both sides with rubber cement or equivalent adhesive, so as to give a rm support, and a line of stitching may be employed for greater security. The projecting portion will usually be of curved outline from side to side, and is more flexible than the heel A, so that when thelip B is seized by the thumb and finger it turns back readily to guide the boot-heel into place, the lower portion merging into the rear wall of the overshoe and extending in a curve outwardly to inclose the bootheel. This curved position of the lip B gives it considerable stiffness, as it stands upright after the shoe A is drawn on over the boot, sucient, in fact, to hold the pantaloons-leg D up at the height of the top of the shoe, and avoiding the necessity of turning it up to escape the mud.

I am aware that there is a great variety in the cut of overshoes and other shoes, some running higher at the rear portion than at each side of the ankle, and also that Congress gaiters are provided with a loop of webbing to draw them on by.' These I do not claim 5 Fbut I Aclaim as my invention- As an improved article of manufacture, a rubber overshoe provided with the permanent flexible shoe-horn and pants-supporter B, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I hereto affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN H. STICKNEY.

Vitnesses:

N. H. SPENCER., ELIHU G. Loomis. 

